Removing PipeWire in Gentoo Linux

PipeWire, all the rage these days, was originally developed for video but was later enhanced to support audio as well, and is now an alternative to PulseAudio and JACK. My laptop running Gentoo Stable (amd64) with the KDE Plasma Desktop had been working fine with PipeWire for some time. The pulseaudio and screencast USE flags were both declared in the file /etc/portage/make.conf. Both audio playback and recording worked fine until a recent upgrade of the packages in my world file, when neither worked any more. The Audio Volume loudspeaker icon (the applet kde-plasma/plasma-pa) on the KDE Plasma panel had a red line through it, and the KMix loudspeaker icon (the applet kde-apps/kmix) on the panel was greyed out. Although I cannot be sure, I suspect the problem started when the first version of PipeWire that supported audio was released. The output of the command ‘ps -ef | grep pulse‘ showed me that both PulseAudio and PipeWire were running. At the time I did not know that PulseAudio is not supposed to be running at the same time as PipeWire. Sometimes when I booted the laptop and logged in, the loudspeaker icons on the Panel would appear correctly and audio output would work properly, but usually this was not the case. This behaviour made me wonder if there was some sort of race condition between the two applications at startup.

Anyway, I stopped PulseAudio being launched automatically at startup. I did this by editing the file /etc/pulse/client.conf to add the line ‘autospawn = no‘ (a comment in the as-installed file indicates that the default value for autospawn is ‘yes‘). That did indeed stop PulseAudio from being launched automatically, and left only PipeWire running. The loudspeaker icons were then displayed correctly on the Panel when I logged in to the KDE Plasma Desktop, and audio output then worked. However, PipeWire did not detect the laptop’s built-in microphone, and no Recording channel was displayed by KMix and Audio Volume. The troubleshooting chapter of the Arch Linux Wiki article on PipeWire has a section suggesting a couple of fixes for this problem (Microphone is not detected by PipeWire) but, even so, I decided to ditch PipeWire and revert to PulseAudio. As much as I dislike PulseAudio (see some of my previous posts on the various problems I have experienced with it), these days it is more or less stable on this laptop and I do not have to mess around too much with audio settings.

A few KDE packages in Gentoo Linux depend on PipeWire (they require the screencast USE flag to be set). I therefore added the following two entries to a file in the directory /etc/portage/package.use/ in order to stop PipeWire being required:

>=sys-apps/xdg-desktop-portal-1.8.1 -screencast
>=kde-apps/krfb-20.12.3 -wayland

I was then able to use the usual command ‘emerge -uvDN @world‘, followed by the command ‘emerge --ask --depclean‘, to rebuild the affected packages and remove PipeWire. I also deleted the line ‘autospawn = no‘ that I had previously added to the file /etc/pulse/client.conf, so that PulseAudio would again be launched automatically at startup. Audio playback and recording are now back to normal. I will probably try PipeWire again in the future but, for the moment, I don’t need it. According to the Gentoo Linux Wiki article on PipeWire:

Warning
As of mid 2021, PipeWire is still in active development and not everything is fully integrated, tested, or implemented – though the project is moving along. While replacing existing audio solutions on Gentoo is possible, the experience is currently not guaranteed to be perfect or free of issues and bugs.

I will therefore wait until the concensus amongst Gentoo Linux users is that PipeWire is trouble-free before I try it again.

croc – another file transfer method

I have lost count of the number of times I have had to send a large file to someone at work, usually in a hurry. I’ve used Dropbox, ownCloud, Firefox Send (no longer available) etc. Transferring large files became a bit easier when e-mail service providers increased the size limit for attachments, but that is still not a solution for very large files. The xkcd cartoon FILE TRANSFER sums up the situation nicely.

I recently discovered the command line utility croc, which the author claims is a way to ‘easily and securely transfer stuff from one computer to another.’ I thought I’d give it a try, if only to have another tool to fall back on in an emergency. It does rely on both ends having croc installed, but hopefully that should not be a show-stopper as croc is available for Linux, Windows, macOS and BSD. To quote the author:

croc differs from a utility like scp because it doesn’t require any two computers to have enabled port-forwarding. Instead, croc will uses a relay – a temporary server setup locally (if both computers are on lan) or publicly (default is at croc4.schollz.com). Any two computers can connect to the relay, and after securing their channel with PAKE [password authenticated key exchange], they can transfer encrypted metadata and data through the relay. The relay works by first having the computers communicate the PAKE protocol via websockets, and then exchanging encrypted metadata, and then stapling the TCP connections directly so that they can transfer directly.

So, to use croc you will be dependent on the public relay provided by the author unless you set up your own relay (instructions are provided in the author’s original 2018 blog post introducing croc – see link above – and in various third-party articles about croc, such as ‘Securely Transfer Files and Folders Between Computers Using Croc‘ and ‘Transfer Files And Folders Between Computers With Croc‘).

Anyway, I installed croc in Lubuntu and Gentoo Linux from the author’s GitHub repository and indeed it is easy to use and works fine. The binary releases for the various OSs and Linux distributions can be found on the Releases page of the GitHub repository or via the OS package manager.

Lubuntu 20.10:

user $ wget https://github.com/schollz/croc/releases/download/v9.1.6/croc_9.1.6_Linux-64bit.deb
user $ sudo dpkg -i croc_9.1.6_Linux-64bit.deb

Gentoo Linux:

root # emerge net-misc/croc

(Note that croc ebuilds are not currently marked as Stable in the Gentoo Linux Portage tree, so you’ll have to unmask them by keyword if you are using the Stable branch.)

Termux:

I even installed croc in Termux on my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G, and it works in Android too:

$ pkg install croc

Other OSs and other Linux distributions:

See the instructions in the README file online.

Using croc

Using croc is as simple as entering a command on one computer, informing (via e-mail, telephone, SMS, Signal or other social media) the person using the other computer of the command to use, and entering that command on the other computer. For example:

Sender

user $ croc send Documents/flight-times.ods
Sending 'flight-times.ods' (16.6 kB)
Code is: 8878-salary-courage-roger
On the other computer run

croc 8878-salary-courage-roger

Receiver

user $ croc 8878-salary-courage-roger
Accept 'flight-times.ods' (16.6 kB)? (Y/n) 

If the receiving user then enters ‘Y’, the sending user sees something similar to this:

user $ croc send Documents/flight-times.ods
Sending 'flight-times.ods' (16.6 kB)
Code is: 8878-salary-courage-roger
On the other computer run

croc 8878-salary-courage-roger

Sending (->192.168.1.74:60740)
 100% |████████████████████| (17/17 kB, 10.918 MB/s)
user $ 

and the receiving user sees something similar to this:

user $ croc 8878-salary-courage-roger
Accept 'flight-times.ods' (16.6 kB)? (Y/n) Y

Receiving (<-[::1]:39442)
 100% |████████████████████| (17/17 kB, 3.989 MB/s)
user $ 

The observant reader will notice that the above example shows a file being transferred on the same computer. When transferred between different computers the IP addresses of each computer will be displayed instead. I have used croc to transfer files between different computers on my home network (I would normally just use my NAS for this, though), between remote computers on the Internet, and between my computers and my phone via mobile broadband, and croc works in all cases.

I have not mentioned all croc’s features. I’ll leave you to read up on croc in more detail in the links I’ve given above. It looks like it might be a useful tool to have installed.

Using adb tools in Linux to remove bloatware from my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

Samsung included a lot of bloatware on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G, and it is not possible to uninstall it using Play Store. However, it is possible to remove this stuff using adb tools. I got rid of the bloatware I don’t want very easily using the Linux version of the adb tools.

I have never had a Facebook account and never will, so I decided to remove all trace of it as follows:

1. Installed adb tools

In Lubuntu 20.10:

user $ sudo apt install android-tools-adb

In Gentoo Linux:

root # emerge dev-util/android-tools

2. Enabled ‘Developer Options’ on the phone

‘Settings’ > ‘About Phone’ > ‘Software Information’ and quickly tapped 7 times on ‘Build number’.

3. Enabled USB Debugging on the phone

‘Settings’ > ‘Developer options’, scrolled down and tapped on ‘USB debugging’.

4. Launched adb

user $ adb start-server
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully

5. Connected the phone to the computer using the USB cable

A few prompts on the phone asked whether or not I wanted to allow USB debugging. Tapped ‘Always allow from this computer’ and tapped ‘OK’.

6. Uninstalled Facebook

The packages I needed to uninstall were:

com.facebook.appmanager
com.facebook.katana
com.facebook.services
com.facebook.system

First I tried to uninstall with the ‘-k‘ option:

user $ adb uninstall -k --user 0 com.facebook.appmanager
The -k option uninstalls the application while retaining the data/cache.
At the moment, there is no way to remove the remaining data.
You will have to reinstall the application with the same signature, and fully uninstall it.
If you truly wish to continue, execute 'adb shell cmd package uninstall -k'.

See ‘Difference between pm clear and pm uninstall -k on Android‘

I have never been a member of Facebook and never will, so I dispensed with the ‘-k‘ option and entered the following commands:

user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.appmanager
Success
user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.katana
Success
user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.services
Success
user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.system
Success

I didn’t want the LinkedIn, Samsung Global Goals and Spotify apps either, so I uninstalled those too:

user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.linkedin.android
Success
user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.sree
Success
user $ adb uninstall --user 0 com.spotify.music
Success

7. Stopped the adb server on the computer

user $ adb kill-server

8. Unplugged the phone from the computer.

That’s it.

In order to disable the apps using this method, you will need to know the exact package name of the app you want to get rid of. For this, use Play Store and install App Inspector (there are several apps with this name in Play Store; I installed the app by Projectoria Ltd but the others look OK too). Launch App Inspector and you can find the package name under the name of the app. This starts with a ‘com‘ or ‘net‘ followed by words separated by dots.

For example, App Inspector shows the package name for LinkedIn as ‘com.linkedin.android‘.

Some useful links:

• How to install and setup ADB tools on Linux
• How To Remove Bloatware on Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Improve Performance
• WARNING: Do *NOT* delete all the apps in this list
• Disable Bloatware on Your Galaxy Note 20 for Free Without Root
• How to Remove Samsung Bloatware without Root (ADB)

To get a list of all the packages installed on my phone:

user $ adb shell pm list packages

To get a list of system apps only:

user $ adb shell pm list packages -s

To get a list of only Samsung packages:

user $ adb shell pm list packages | grep samsung

To search for e.g. facebook packages:

user $ adb shell pm list packages | grep facebook

(Returns nothing now, as I already deleted all the Facebook packages. Yay!)

To search for other packages, e.g.:

user $ adb shell pm list packages | grep kids
package:com.samsung.android.kidsinstaller
package:com.sec.android.app.kidshome

Is Gentoo Linux an anachronism?

When I started visiting the Gentoo Linux discussion forums in 2007 there were at least three pages of posts daily, if not more. These days there is usually one page. I’m sure the number of Gentoo Linux users has dropped significantly since then. Interest in the distribution has certainly decreased since its heyday: Google Trends – gentoo linux.

I don’t think the drop in interest is limited to individuals either. Articles such as ‘Flying Circus Internet Operations GmbH – Migrating a Hosting Infrastructure from Gentoo to NixOS‘ lead me to suspect that some companies have switched to other distributions over the years. NASDAQ’s use of ‘a modified version of Gentoo Linux’ was publicised in 2011 (How Linux Mastered Wall Street) but I do not know if it still uses the distribution and, in any case, that is only a single significant entity. I personally have never come across another user (corporation or individual) of Gentoo Linux, although I do know several companies and individuals using distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora.

Gentoo Linux is certainly not for everyone. In recent years the user base seems to have settled down to a smaller number of people, primarily consisting of enthusiasts who appreciate its advanced features and are prepared to put in the extra effort and time required to create and maintain a working installation. I’m sure it also still has a place in some specialised commercial applications, but I have my doubts its deployment comes anywhere near that of the major distributions such as Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, etc. If I were only interested in using an OS that enabled me to perform typical personal and professional tasks, I wouldn’t be using Gentoo Linux. Some people touted Gentoo Linux’s configurability as giving it a speed advantage over binary distributions but, having correctly installed and used Gentoo Linux and various other distributions on the same hardware, I cannot say I noticed an improvement in performance.

I think one has to choose the right tool for the job. I wouldn’t dream of installing Gentoo Linux on any of my family’s machines or on older hardware. Personal experience doing the latter has taught me it is a waste of time (both installation itself and subsequent maintenance). I installed Lubuntu on my family’s desktop machine because it is a reliable, low-maintenance OS with automatic update notifications and painless, fast updates. On the other hand I installed Gentoo Linux on my laptops because I want to tinker with the OS, configure it exactly the way I want, be able to apply patches to source code easily, install multiple versions of the same application (‘slotted applications’), learn more about how the OS works, and experiment. You can do that too with a binary distribution, but with Gentoo Linux I feel I know a lot more about the kernel, OS internals, package management and package customisation than with a pre-canned binary distribution. It really is good for learning about Linux in more depth than a binary distribution.

My old Compal NBLB2 laptop with a first-generation Intel Core i7 CPU is eleven years old and I have never touched the package installation log file /var/log/emerge.log since installation in March 2010. Ten years after I first installed Gentoo Linux on it I ran the command ‘qlop -c -H‘ out of curiosity to see how much time had been spent building packages over its lifetime. The reported statistics were as follows:

total: 492 days, 5 hours, 47 minutes, 44 seconds for 67841 merges, 4295 unmerges, 446 syncs

That’s roughly 13% of its then 124 months ‘life’ spent compiling.

It has an Intel Core i7 720QM CPU (1.6 GHz but throttled to 933 MHz by Compal due to Compal’s PSU size, although I bought a higher Wattage PSU a year ago and it seems to run at 1.6 GHz since then). It has always had KDE installed, and numerous upgrades to KDE have kept it busy compiling. Each version of LibreOffice, qtwebengine, Firefox etc. has also taken a very long time to compile. Until I removed qtwebengine and the few packages dependent on it this year, even with jumbo-build enabled qtwebengine took more than a day to build. Admittedly I did have trouble some years ago with the HDD becoming almost full with temporary directories and files over a long period of time (/usr/tmp/portage/ contained a whopping 30GB of directories and files until I cleared it out), which also slowed things down, but that is no longer the case. Unfortunately that laptop has ~amd64 (Gentoo Linux Testing) installed rather than amd64 (Gentoo Linux Stable), so it’s not possible to install the binary package of LibreOffice due to dependency conflicts. As all the big packages take so long to compile on this particular laptop I ended up merging the firefox-bin package rather than the firefox source code package, and I use Microsoft Office 2007 running under WINE rather than LibreOffice.

My Clevo W230SS laptop (fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz) running Gentoo amd64 (Gentoo Linux Stable) with a few ~amd64 (testing) packages is six years old and I have not touched /var/log/emerge.log since installation in April 2015. Five years after I first installed Gentoo Linux on it I ran the command ‘qlop -c -H‘ to see how it compared to the older Compal NBLB2 laptop running Gentoo ~amd64 mentioned above. The reported statistics were as follows:

total: 53 days, 11 hours, 3 minutes, 31 seconds for 24494 merges, 1717 unmerges, 169 syncs

That’s roughly 3% of its then 64 months ‘life’ spent compiling. Nowhere near as bad as my older laptop, but still a lot of time spent compiling. The merge time for qtwebengine 5.14.2 was 4 hours 25 minutes with that fourth-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, but later versions of qtwebengine take even longer to build.

I personally would now only consider installing Gentoo Linux on a machine with at least 16 GB RAM and a CPU with at least four cores and a speed of circa 3 GHz or more. Additionally, although I have been a user of KDE in Gentoo Linux all these years, I would probably switch from KDE to a simpler, less resource-hungry and less feature-rich (some might say less ‘bloated’!) desktop environment such as LXQt in new installations of Gentoo Linux.

One thing that has improved a lot since I started using Gentoo Linux over a decade ago is the package manager Portage, at least in terms of dependency resolution and blockage handling. I used to have to do a lot more work to resolve problems during package upgrades; ‘merging world’ (upgrading installed packages) is generally a lot less troublesome than it used to be ten years ago. Portage is a lot slower than it used to be, but that’s because it does a lot more than it used to do. I used to have to use revdep-rebuild – a utility to resolve reverse dependencies and rebuild affected packages – frequently, but not any more. Building software from source code takes time, though, so plenty of RAM and a fast CPU are important for installing packages, however good the package manager itself.

Some people maintain that the reduction in posts in the Gentoo Linux Forums could just mean users have fewer problems these days compared to earlier years. However, I have my doubts that would account for the much larger number of pages of ‘posts from the last 24 hours’ in earlier years, nor for the big drop in Google Trends statistics since 2004. Posts from new users do appear from time to time in the forums, so I suspect there are simply not as many new users as a decade or more ago. There are also posts from long-time users when there are major changes such as an upgrade to a newer version of Python or a profile change.

Another argument against a drop in popularity is that many of the users in the high number of users online in a 24-hour period in earlier years were spambots. I used to be a moderator of the Sabayon Linux forums, so I’m well aware of the phenomenon and I had to ban quite a few spammers & spambots in my time. But I’m not buying for one moment that the majority or even a significant number of the 1850 users logged in to the Gentoo Forums on 30 December 2004 were spambots. I am aware of puerile, more-recent attempts by a few lone individuals to boost the distribution’s exposure, such as ‘Gentoo Linux Forums – I’ve just set up Gentoo on distrowatch as my homepage‘ but I doubt very much that has had any impact on uptake. Mind you, such antics are not confined to Gentoo Linux; I’ve seen similar posts in the forums of some other distributions.

I think former Gentoo Linux developer and Council member Donnie Berkholz got it about right in his 2013 article Ranking Linux distributions, and the decline of the traditional distros.

A discussion on Reddit in 2016 indicated that other Linux users have noticed a decline in use of the distribution: Why did Gentoo peak in popularity in 2005, then fade into obscurity?.

The decline in use of Gentoo Linux is not just due to lower uptake by new users; veteran users have also moved away due to its demands on time and effort: ‘Au Revoir, Gentoo – Sell Me A New Linux Distro‘. There are occasionally posts in the Gentoo Linux forums by previous users announcing that they have started using the distribution again, but I strongly suspect they are exceptions to the general trend.

Gentoo Linux is not as popular as it used to be, and there is no way of dressing it up any other way. However, Gentoo Linux can still be worthwhile for the Linux enthusiast and ‘power user’ who enjoys tinkering and learning more about Linux internals, and who does not mind the significant additional time required to maintain it, and the time, effort and extra energy consumption required to compile packages. But I would not recommend Gentoo Linux if you just want a Linux installation in order to perform typical desktop tasks such as browsing the Web, sending e-mails, word processing, working on spreadsheets and so on.

Hardware has become much more powerful since Gentoo Linux’s heyday, and drivers have improved significantly (I shudder to think of the time I spent years ago getting Linux to work with some devices), making the optimisation and lower-level tinkering that Gentoo Linux facilitates less of a necessity. Furthermore, binary distributions have improved noticeably over the years, becoming easier to install, more user-friendly, easier to maintain, more reliable and better-looking. The improvements in binary distributions have, in my opinion, also contributed to the drift away from Gentoo Linux.

Nevertheless, I believe Gentoo Linux will not disappear; it is rather unique and there will always be people who enjoy the challenge of developing it and/or using it rather than a binary distribution. Furthermore, the additional control Gentoo Linux offers those who are prepared to put in the extra time and effort to use it, plus its high degree of ‘customisability’, make it attractive to certain users or for certain specialist applications. Then there are those who simply prefer not to follow the mainstream and want to try something different. I certainly hope Gentoo Linux continues long into the future and manages to maintain its distinctiveness, including the ease in not using systemd if the user so choses. Using OpenRC – which has never caused me a problem in over a decade – instead of systemd has become increasingly difficult for many Gentoo Linux users because upstream software is increasingly being written specifically to use systemd and would require significant effort to patch (KDE Control Module Plasma Firewall being a recent example). Portage is an excellent, powerful package manager, as is the accompanying suite of tools, and I don’t think there is anything that can beat that (probably one of the reasons the developers of Google Chrome OS opted to use Portage). Now, if only someone could release a machine an average home user could afford that could compile source-code packages such as qtwebengine, LibreOffice and Firefox in, say, one minute, perhaps Gentoo Linux’s popularity would increase! 😉 Until Moore’s Law results in manufacturers of home computers catching up with the build requirements of Gentoo Linux, the distribution will definitely remain a niche player. Personally, that does not bother me, although I must admit I am finding the time and effort to maintain my installations rather irksome these days.

How to patch kde-plasma/plasma-firewall-5.21.2 for UFW in Gentoo Linux with OpenRC

Unfortunately plasma-firewall-5.21.2, a new Plasma frontend for firewalld and UFW, has been written only for Linux installations with systemd. However, I use OpenRC and syslog-ng in Gentoo Linux and wanted to try to get plasma-firewall to work on my laptop which uses UFW. I therefore set about patching plasma-firewall-5.21.2. I did not touch the firewalld part of plasma-firewall, as I do not use firewalld (and the plasma-firewall code for firewalld is more complicated). Below is what I did.

root # wget https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-firewall/-/archive/Plasma/5.21/plasma-firewall-Plasma-5.21.tar.gz
root # tar -xzf plasma-firewall-Plasma-5.21.tar.gz
root # cp -pr plasma-firewall-Plasma-5.21 a
root # cp -pr plasma-firewall-Plasma-5.21 b
root # nano b/kcm/backends/ufw/ufwclient.cpp # Apply changes shown in Part 1 below.
root # nano b/kcm/backends/ufw/helper/helper.cpp # Apply changes shown in Part 2 below.
root # nano /usr/bin/print_ufw_messages # Create Bash script shown in Part 2 below.
root # chmod 755 /usr/bin/print_ufw_messages
root # nano b/kcm/backends/ufw/ufwlogmodel.cpp # Apply changes shown in Part 3 below.
root # diff -ruN a b > plasma-firewall-5.21.2-ufw.patch
root # mkdir -p /etc/portage/patches/kde-plasma/plasma-firewall-5.21.2
root # cp plasma-firewall-5.21.2-ufw.patch /etc/portage/patches/kde-plasma/plasma-firewall-5.21.2/
root # emerge -1v plasma-firewall
root # nano /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf # Apply changes shown in Part 4 below.

You should now be able to use plasma-firewall for UFW in KDE Plasma’s ‘System Settings’ > ‘Firewall’ in the Network section, although I have not tried all the functions. Additionally, I believe there may be some outstanding bugs in the original 5.21.2 version of the Plasma module when using it with systemd.

Part 1

In /kcm/backends/ufw/ufwclient.cpp change:

bool UfwClient::isCurrentlyLoaded() const
{
QProcess process;
const QString name = "systemctl";
const QStringList args = {"status", "ufw"};

process.start(name, args);
process.waitForFinished();

// systemctl returns 0 for status if the app is loaded, and 3 otherwise.
qDebug() << "Ufw is loaded?" << (process.exitCode() == EXIT_SUCCESS);

return process.exitCode() == EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

to:

bool UfwClient::isCurrentlyLoaded() const
{
QProcess process;
const QString name = "rc-service";
const QStringList args = {"--exists", "ufw"};

process.start(name, args);
process.waitForFinished();

// "rc-service --exists" returns 0 if the app is loaded, and -1 otherwise.
qDebug() << "Ufw is loaded?" << (process.exitCode() == EXIT_SUCCESS);

return process.exitCode() == EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Part 2

In /kcm/backends/ufw/helper/helper.cpp change:

QStringList getLogFromSystemd(const QString &lastLine)
{
QString program = "journalctl";
QStringList arguments {"-xb","-n", "100","-g", "UFW"};

QProcess myProcess;
myProcess.start(program, arguments);
myProcess.waitForFinished();

auto resultString = QString(myProcess.readAllStandardOutput());
auto resultList = resultString.split("\n");

// Example Line from Systemd:
// Dec 06 17:42:45 tomatoland kernel: [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=192.168.50.181 DST=224.0.0.252 LEN=56 TOS=0x00
//     PREC=0x00 TTL=255 ID=52151 PROTO=UDP SPT=5355 DPT=5355 LEN=36
// We need to remove everything up to the space after ']'.

QStringList result;
for(const QString& line : resultList) {
if (!lastLine.isEmpty() && line == lastLine) {
result.clear();
continue;
}
result.append(line);
}
return result;
}

to:

QStringList getLogFromSystemd(const QString &lastLine)
{
QString program = "print_ufw_messages";
QStringList arguments {"UFW", "100"};

QProcess myProcess;
myProcess.start(program, arguments);
myProcess.waitForFinished();

auto resultString = QString(myProcess.readAllStandardOutput());
auto resultList = resultString.split("\n");

// Example line from /var/log/messages populated by sylog-ng:
// Mar  6 00:10:19 localhost kernel: [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:12:5b:8a:83:6d:b7:2a:da:59:d4:10:09:00 SRC=192.168.1.27
//      DST=192.168.1.139 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=41659 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=445 DPT=52140 WINDOW=260 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0
// We need to remove everything up to the space after ']'.

QStringList result;
for(const QString& line : resultList) {
if (!lastLine.isEmpty() && line == lastLine) {
result.clear();
continue;
}
result.append(line);
}
return result;
}

where the program print_ufw_messages is a user-created Bash script /usr/bin/print_ufw_messages (-rwxr-xr-x root.root) containing:

#!/bin/bash
awk '{if (/localhost syslog-ng/ && /syslog-ng starting up/ && !/COMMAND/) {chunk=""} else {chunk=chunk $0 RS}} END {printf "%s", chunk}' /var/log/messages | grep "$1" | head -n "$2" | grep -v print_ufw_messages

Part 3

During my investigations into how to modify the plasma-firewall-5.21.2 source code, I discovered a bug in the source code. In /kcm/backends/ufw/ufwlogmodel.cpp change:

for (const QString& key : {"IN", "SRC", "DST", "PROTO", "STP", "DPT"}) {

to:

for (const QString& key : {"IN", "SRC", "DST", "PROTO", "SPT", "DPT"}) {

i.e. “STP” needs to be changed to “SPT“.

Part 4

I am not sure if this makes a difference to plasma-firewall (which was coded assuming systemd-journald is installed), but the default date format for messages in /var/log/messages printed by syslog-ng has only one digit in the day of the month when it is less than the 10th day of the month. For example:

Mar  9 03:09:39 clevow230ss syslog-ng[23735]:  syslog-ng starting up; version='3.30.1'

However, systemd-journalctl always outputs two-digit days of the month, and I think (but am not certain) the following date format might be needed in order for the existing code in /kcm/backends/ufw/ufwlogmodel.cpp to parse the syslog-ng output correctly:

Mar 09 03:09:39 clevow230ss syslog-ng[23735]:  syslog-ng starting up; version='3.30.1'

Therefore edit /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf and add a template:

template template_date_format {
template("${MONTH_ABBREV} ${DAY} ${HOUR}:${MIN}:${SEC} ${HOST} ${MSGHDR}${MSG}\n");
template_escape(no);
};

and change the line:

destination messages { file("/var/log/messages"); };

to:

destination messages { file("/var/log/messages" template(template_date_format)); };

Then restart syslog-ng:

root # rc-service syslog-ng restart

From now on the day of the month is always two digits (01, 02,…31) in /var/log/messages.

Removing qtwebengine from a Gentoo Linux installation

At the beginning of March I updated the world set in Gentoo Testing (~amd64) running the KDE suite (Plasma, Frameworks and Applications) on my secondary laptop, an eleven-year-old Compal NBLB2. It has a first-generation Core i7 CPU and the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed in that model (8 GB).

root # uname -a
Linux meshedgedx 5.0.11-gentoo #1 SMP Fri Jun 7 15:33:06 BST 2019 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Gentoo Linux being a source-based distribution, updates to the largest packages take hours to build on older machines. Actually, some packages can take hours to build on newer machines too. On this older laptop I therefore merge the www-client/firefox-bin binary package instead of the www-client/firefox source-code package, and have installed Microsoft Office 2007 running in WINE instead of trying to merge the app-office/libreoffice source-code package (app-office/libreoffice-bin cannot be merged in this Testing installation because of incompatibility with the versions of installed dependencies, so it would only be a viable alternative binary package in a Stable installation).

Possibly the worst source-code package to build is dev-qt/qtwebengine. Nowadays it takes a ridiculous amount of time to build on this laptop, even with the jumbo-build USE flag set and MAKEOPTS="-j4" or even MAKEOPTS="-j1". The latest merge on the laptop took more than 14 hours:

root # genlop -t qtwebengine | tail -n 3
     Fri Mar  5 02:02:07 2021 >>> dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2_p20210224
       merge time: 14 hours, 14 minutes and 7 seconds.

That is actually quite fast for that laptop; qtwebengine has sometimes taken two days to merge in the past.

What a waste of time and electricity, not to mention the unnecessary wear on the laptop (fan bearing; prolonged heat on components; etc.).

This one package is such a hassle to merge that it had me wondering if I should switch from Gentoo Linux to a binary distribution. Even on my six-year-old Compal W230SS laptop with a fourth-generation Core i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM, qtwebengine takes circa five hours to merge. After several years putting up with this scourge of source-based Linux distributions on my secondary laptop, I had finally had enough and decided to excise the package, which did not look like an easy task with the full KDE suite installed. This is how I did it…

1. First I made sure the installation was up-to-date (see my earlier post ‘My system upgrade procedure for Gentoo Linux‘ for the steps I normally use to update all packages to their latest versions).

2. I ascertained which packages depended on qtwebengine:

root # equery depends qtwebengine
 * These packages depend on qtwebengine:
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-apps/kalgebra-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-apps/kdenlive-20.12.2 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-apps/kimagemapeditor-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-apps/ktp-text-ui-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-apps/marble-20.12.2 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-apps/parley-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-plasma/kdeplasma-addons-5.21.1 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-plasma/libksysguard-5.21.1 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1 (dev-qt/qtwebengine:5)
net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2 (rss ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
                         (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
www-client/falkon-3.1.0-r1 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.12.3:5[widgets])

3. I disabled the USE flag ‘webengine‘ globally:

root # nano /etc/portage/make.conf # Add -webengine to the list of USE flags

4. I merged the world set in order to incorporate the USE flag change:

root # emerge -uvDN @world

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R    ] kde-apps/marble-20.12.2:5/20.12::gentoo  USE="dbus geolocation kde nls pbf phonon -aprs -debug -designer -gps -handbook -shapefile -test -webengine*" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] kde-apps/kdeedu-meta-20.12.2:5::gentoo  USE="-webengine*" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] kde-apps/kdecore-meta-20.12.2:5::gentoo  USE="share thumbnail -handbook -webengine*" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2:5::gentoo  USE="bwscheduler downloadorder infowidget ipfilter kross logviewer magnetgenerator mediaplayer rss scanfolder shutdown stats upnp zeroconf -debug -handbook -test -webengine*" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.2:5::gentoo  USE="bittorrent -dropbox -webengine*" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] kde-apps/kdeutils-meta-20.12.2:5::gentoo  USE="cups rar -7zip -floppy -gpg -lrz -webengine*" 0 KiB

Total: 6 packages (6 reinstalls), Size of downloads: 0 KiB

>>> Verifying ebuild manifests
>>> Emerging (1 of 6) kde-apps/marble-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Emerging (2 of 6) kde-apps/kdecore-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Emerging (3 of 6) net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Emerging (4 of 6) kde-apps/kdeutils-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Installing (2 of 6) kde-apps/kdecore-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Installing (4 of 6) kde-apps/kdeutils-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Installing (3 of 6) net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Emerging (5 of 6) kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Installing (5 of 6) kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Installing (1 of 6) kde-apps/marble-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Emerging (6 of 6) kde-apps/kdeedu-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Installing (6 of 6) kde-apps/kdeedu-meta-20.12.2::gentoo
>>> Jobs: 6 of 6 complete                           Load avg: 1.93, 3.62, 3.86
>>> Auto-cleaning packages...

>>> No outdated packages were found on your system.

 * GNU info directory index is up-to-date.
 * After world updates, it is important to remove obsolete packages with
 * emerge --depclean. Refer to `man emerge` for more information.

5. I uninstalled packages that were no longer required by any other packages and also not required by me (I do not use the Falkon browser, Telepathy and KAlgebra, to give a few examples, and so did not mind various specific packages being removed):

root # emerge --ask --depclean

 * Always study the list of packages to be cleaned for any obvious
 * mistakes. Packages that are part of the world set will always
 * be kept.  They can be manually added to this set with
 * `emerge --noreplace `.  Packages that are listed in
 * package.provided (see portage(5)) will be removed by
 * depclean, even if they are part of the world set.
 * 
 * As a safety measure, depclean will not remove any packages
 * unless *all* required dependencies have been resolved.  As a
 * consequence of this, it often becomes necessary to run 
 * `emerge --update --newuse --deep @world` prior to depclean.

Calculating dependencies... done!
>>> Calculating removal order...

>>> These are the packages that would be unmerged:                                                                                                                                                                                                

 kde-apps/parley
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 www-client/falkon
    selected: 3.1.0-r1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/kimagemapeditor
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/plasma-telepathy-meta
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/kalgebra
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-kded-module
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-desktop-applets
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-accounts-kcm
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-send-file
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-approver
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-auth-handler
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-contact-runner
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-text-ui
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/signon-kwallet-extension
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-im/telepathy-connection-managers
    selected: 2-r2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-filetransfer-handler
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-contact-list
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-irc/telepathy-idle
    selected: 0.2.0-r3 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-voip/telepathy-salut
    selected: 0.8.1-r3 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-voip/telepathy-gabble
    selected: 0.18.4-r2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/ktp-common-internals
    selected: 20.12.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/telepathy-accounts-signon
    selected: 2.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/libnice
    selected: 0.1.15 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/telepathy-logger-qt
    selected: 17.09.0 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-im/telepathy-logger
    selected: 0.8.2-r1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/gupnp-igd
    selected: 0.2.5-r10 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/libsignon-glib
    selected: 2.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/telepathy-qt
    selected: 0.9.8 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/gupnp
    selected: 1.2.4 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/gssdp
    selected: 1.2.3 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/libsoup
    selected: 2.70.0 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/libpsl
    selected: 0.21.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/glib-networking
    selected: 2.66.0 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-im/telepathy-mission-control
    selected: 5.16.5 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/telepathy-glib
    selected: 0.24.1-r1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

All selected packages: =kde-apps/ktp-desktop-applets-20.12.2 =kde-apps/ktp-contact-runner-20.12.2 =kde-apps/ktp-contact-list-20.12.2 =net-libs/telepathy-accounts-signon-2.1 =net-libs/telepathy-glib-0.24.1-r1 =net-voip/telepathy-salut-0.8.1-r3 =kde-apps/ktp-text-ui-20.12.2 =net-libs/libsignon-glib-2.1 =net-im/telepathy-connection-managers-2-r2 =kde-apps/ktp-accounts-kcm-20.12.2 =kde-apps/kimagemapeditor-20.12.2 =kde-apps/ktp-common-internals-20.12.2 =kde-apps/parley-20.12.2 =net-libs/libnice-0.1.15 =net-libs/libsoup-2.70.0 =kde-apps/ktp-auth-handler-20.12.2 =net-libs/gssdp-1.2.3 =net-irc/telepathy-idle-0.2.0-r3 =net-libs/libpsl-0.21.1 =kde-apps/kalgebra-20.12.2 =net-libs/gupnp-igd-0.2.5-r10 =kde-apps/ktp-filetransfer-handler-20.12.2 =kde-apps/ktp-send-file-20.12.2 =net-libs/gupnp-1.2.4 =kde-apps/ktp-kded-module-20.12.2 =net-im/telepathy-mission-control-5.16.5 =kde-apps/plasma-telepathy-meta-20.12.2 =net-voip/telepathy-gabble-0.18.4-r2 =net-im/telepathy-logger-0.8.2-r1 =kde-apps/signon-kwallet-extension-20.12.2 =net-libs/telepathy-logger-qt-17.09.0 =net-libs/telepathy-qt-0.9.8 =net-libs/glib-networking-2.66.0 =kde-apps/ktp-approver-20.12.2 =www-client/falkon-3.1.0-r1

>>> 'Selected' packages are slated for removal.
>>> 'Protected' and 'omitted' packages will not be removed.

Would you like to unmerge these packages? [Yes/No] Yes 
>>> Waiting 5 seconds before starting...
>>> (Control-C to abort)...
>>> Unmerging in: 5 4 3 2 1
>>> Unmerging (1 of 35) kde-apps/parley-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (2 of 35) www-client/falkon-3.1.0-r1...
>>> Unmerging (3 of 35) kde-apps/kimagemapeditor-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (4 of 35) kde-apps/plasma-telepathy-meta-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (5 of 35) kde-apps/kalgebra-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (6 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-kded-module-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (7 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-desktop-applets-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (8 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-accounts-kcm-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (9 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-send-file-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (10 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-approver-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (11 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-auth-handler-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (12 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-contact-runner-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (13 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-text-ui-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (14 of 35) kde-apps/signon-kwallet-extension-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (15 of 35) net-im/telepathy-connection-managers-2-r2...
>>> Unmerging (16 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-filetransfer-handler-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (17 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-contact-list-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (18 of 35) net-irc/telepathy-idle-0.2.0-r3...
>>> Unmerging (19 of 35) net-voip/telepathy-salut-0.8.1-r3...
>>> Unmerging (20 of 35) net-voip/telepathy-gabble-0.18.4-r2...
>>> Unmerging (21 of 35) kde-apps/ktp-common-internals-20.12.2...
>>> Unmerging (22 of 35) net-libs/telepathy-accounts-signon-2.1...
>>> Unmerging (23 of 35) net-libs/libnice-0.1.15...
>>> Unmerging (24 of 35) net-libs/telepathy-logger-qt-17.09.0...
>>> Unmerging (25 of 35) net-im/telepathy-logger-0.8.2-r1...
>>> Unmerging (26 of 35) net-libs/gupnp-igd-0.2.5-r10...
>>> Unmerging (27 of 35) net-libs/libsignon-glib-2.1...
>>> Unmerging (28 of 35) net-libs/telepathy-qt-0.9.8...
>>> Unmerging (29 of 35) net-libs/gupnp-1.2.4...
>>> Unmerging (30 of 35) net-libs/gssdp-1.2.3...
>>> Unmerging (31 of 35) net-libs/libsoup-2.70.0...
>>> Unmerging (32 of 35) net-libs/libpsl-0.21.1...
>>> Unmerging (33 of 35) net-libs/glib-networking-2.66.0...
>>> Unmerging (34 of 35) net-im/telepathy-mission-control-5.16.5...
>>> Unmerging (35 of 35) net-libs/telepathy-glib-0.24.1-r1...
Packages installed:   1651
Packages in world:    329
Packages in system:   43
Required packages:    1651
Number removed:       35

 * GNU info directory index is up-to-date.

Notice that the package qtwebengine had not been removed, so something still depended on it.

6. I checked if there were any packages still installed with a dependency on qtwebengine:

root # equery depends qtwebengine
 * These packages depend on qtwebengine:
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-apps/kdenlive-20.12.2 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-apps/marble-20.12.2 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-plasma/kdeplasma-addons-5.21.1 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-plasma/libksysguard-5.21.1 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1 (dev-qt/qtwebengine:5)
net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2 (rss ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
                         (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)

As can be seen from the above output, the only remaining installed packages that ‘hard-depended’ on the ‘webengine‘ USE flag were kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.2 and net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1.

Additionally, the package net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2 still depended on qtwebengine because the rss USE flag was enabled. So I added the line ‘net-p2p/ktorrent -rss‘ to the file /etc/portage/package.use/package.use and re-merged net-p2p/ktorrent. Actually, I re-merged the following packages just in case they needed to be rebuilt, although in retrospect I believe that was unnecessary:

     Fri Mar  5 05:37:26 2021 >>> kde-apps/kdecore-meta-20.12.2
     Fri Mar  5 05:37:55 2021 >>> kde-apps/kdeutils-meta-20.12.2
     Fri Mar  5 05:45:49 2021 >>> net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.2
     Fri Mar  5 05:46:49 2021 >>> kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.2
     Fri Mar  5 05:57:41 2021 >>> kde-apps/marble-20.12.2
     Fri Mar  5 05:58:15 2021 >>> kde-apps/kdeedu-meta-20.12.2

7. By now another day had dawned, so I checked if new versions of the ebuilds for any KDE packages had been uploaded to the Portage repositories:

root # emaint sync -a
root # eix-update && updatedb

8. I rebooted the laptop and checked which packages still depended on qtwebengine. It turned out that only the two packages with a hard-dependency on qtwebengine were still preventing me from removing it:

root # equery depends qtwebengine
 * These packages depend on qtwebengine:
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.2 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1 (dev-qt/qtwebengine:5)

9. I checked if any packages depended on those two packages:

root # equery depends kaccounts-providers
 * These packages depend on kaccounts-providers:
kde-misc/kio-gdrive-20.12.2 (>=kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.2:5)
# equery depends kio-gdrive
 * These packages depend on kio-gdrive:
kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.2 (>=kde-misc/kio-gdrive-20.12.2:5)

root # equery depends signon-ui
 * These packages depend on signon-ui:
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.2 (net-libs/signon-ui)

So kdenetwork-meta hard-depends on kio-gdrive, which does not make much sense, really, given that not all KDE users have a Google Drive account and those users therefore do not need the kio-gdrive package to be installed.

10. The contents of the kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3 ebuild look like this:

root # cat /usr/portage/kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3.ebuild
# Copyright 1999-2021 Gentoo Authors
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2

EAPI=7

DESCRIPTION="kdenetwork - merge this to pull in all kdenetwork-derived packages"
HOMEPAGE="https://kde.org/"

LICENSE="metapackage"
SLOT="5"
KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~arm64 ~ppc64 ~x86"
IUSE="+bittorrent dropbox +webengine"

RDEPEND="
        >=kde-apps/kdenetwork-filesharing-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-apps/kget-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-apps/kopete-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-apps/krdc-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-apps/krfb-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-apps/zeroconf-ioslave-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-misc/kdeconnect-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=kde-misc/kio-gdrive-${PV}:${SLOT}
        >=net-irc/konversation-${PV}:${SLOT}
        bittorrent? (
                >=net-libs/libktorrent-${PV}:${SLOT}
                >=net-p2p/ktorrent-${PV}:${SLOT}
        )
        dropbox? ( >=kde-apps/dolphin-plugins-dropbox-${PV}:${SLOT} )
"

so I created an ebuild for kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3 in my local overlay with the dependency on kio-gdrive removed:

root # mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
root # cd /usr/local/portage/kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
root # cp /usr/portage/kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3.ebuild .
root # nano kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3.ebuild # Delete the line containing ">=kde-misc/kio-gdrive-${PV}:${SLOT}"
root # ebuild kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3.ebuild manifest
>>> Creating Manifest for /usr/local/portage/kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
root # # eix-update && updatedb

11. I re-merged the world set in order to update all KDE packages that now had a newer ebuild version:

root # emerge -uvDN @world

12. I rechecked the three packages that had depended on qtwebengine:

root # equery depends signon-ui
 * These packages depend on signon-ui:
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.3 (net-libs/signon-ui)
root # equery depends kaccounts-providers
 * These packages depend on kaccounts-providers:
kde-misc/kio-gdrive-20.12.3 (kaccounts ? >=kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.08.3:5)
root # equery depends kio-gdrive
 * These packages depend on kio-gdrive:
root #

As can be seen above, my modified ebuild for kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3 had indeed removed the impediment to uninstalling kio-gdrive and therefore the impediment to uninstalling kaccount-providers and signon-ui.

13. I merged my modified version of kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3:

Up to this point kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3 had been merged from the main Portage tree:

root # eix -I kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
[I] kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
     Available versions:  (5) 20.08.3-r1 (~)20.12.3 (~)20.12.3[1]
       {+bittorrent dropbox +webengine}
     Installed versions:  20.12.3(5)(15:23:08 05/03/21)(bittorrent -dropbox -webengine)
     Homepage:            https://kde.org/
     Description:         kdenetwork - merge this to pull in all kdenetwork-derived packages

[1] "local_overlay" /usr/local/portage

I then merged the version from my local overlay:

root # emerge -1v kdenetwork-meta::local_overlay

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R    ] kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3:5::local_overlay [20.12.3:5::gentoo] USE="bittorrent -dropbox -webengine" 0 KiB

Total: 1 package (1 reinstall), Size of downloads: 0 KiB

>>> Verifying ebuild manifests
>>> Emerging (1 of 1) kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3::local_overlay
>>> Installing (1 of 1) kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta-20.12.3::local_overlay
>>> Jobs: 1 of 1 complete                           Load avg: 1.76, 0.88, 0.61
>>> Auto-cleaning packages...

>>> No outdated packages were found on your system.

 * GNU info directory index is up-to-date.

root # eix -I kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
[I] kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta
     Available versions:  (5) 20.08.3-r1 (~)20.12.3 (~)20.12.3[1]
       {+bittorrent dropbox +webengine}
     Installed versions:  20.12.3(5)[1](16:40:43 05/03/21)(bittorrent -dropbox -webengine)
     Homepage:            https://kde.org/
     Description:         kdenetwork - merge this to pull in all kdenetwork-derived packages

[1] "local_overlay" /usr/local/portage

14. I checked which packages still depended on qtwebengine:

root # equery depends qtwebengine
 * These packages depend on qtwebengine:
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.3 (>=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-apps/kdenlive-20.12.3 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-apps/marble-20.12.3 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5[widgets])
kde-plasma/kdeplasma-addons-5.21.2 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
kde-plasma/libksysguard-5.21.2 (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1 (dev-qt/qtwebengine:5)
net-p2p/ktorrent-20.12.3 (rss ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)
                         (webengine ? >=dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2:5)

Eureka! kdenetwork-meta no longer depends on qtwebengine.

15. I was then able to remove qtwebengine and the remaining packages that hard-depend on it:

root # emerge --ask --depclean qtwebengine kaccounts-providers signon-ui kio-gdrive

Calculating dependencies... done!
>>> Calculating removal order...

>>> These are the packages that would be unmerged:                                                                                                                                                                                                

 kde-misc/kio-gdrive
    selected: 20.12.3 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 kde-apps/kaccounts-providers
    selected: 20.12.3 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 net-libs/signon-ui
    selected: 0.15_p20171022-r1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-qt/qtwebengine
    selected: 5.15.2_p20210224 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

All selected packages: =dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2_p20210224 =kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.3 =kde-misc/kio-gdrive-20.12.3 =net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1

>>> 'Selected' packages are slated for removal.
>>> 'Protected' and 'omitted' packages will not be removed.

Would you like to unmerge these packages? [Yes/No] Yes
>>> Waiting 5 seconds before starting...
>>> (Control-C to abort)...
>>> Unmerging in: 5 4 3 2 1
>>> Unmerging (1 of 4) kde-misc/kio-gdrive-20.12.3...
>>> Unmerging (2 of 4) kde-apps/kaccounts-providers-20.12.3...
>>> Unmerging (3 of 4) net-libs/signon-ui-0.15_p20171022-r1...
>>> Unmerging (4 of 4) dev-qt/qtwebengine-5.15.2_p20210224...
Packages installed:   1648
Packages in world:    329
Packages in system:   43
Required packages:    1648
Number removed:       4

 * GNU info directory index is up-to-date.

\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ No more qtwebengine in Gentoo Linux Testing (~amd64) running KDE.

Of course this was only possible because I do not need the specific packages that had been uninstalled during this entire procedure. Other people may not be in the same position.

16. I added the following lines to the file /etc/portage/package.mask/package.mask so that the packages are not pulled in automatically when merging the world set in future:

dev-qt/qtwebengine
kde-apps/kdenetwork-meta::gentoo
kde-misc/kio-gdrive
kde-apps/kaccounts-providers
net-libs/signon-ui

17. In future I will have to modify new versions of the kdenetwork-meta ebuild and add them to my local overlay. Furthermore, if other packages become dependent on qtwebengine in future and I do not require them, I will have to repeat the above steps in order to remove them (if viable). I just hope I can keep the qtwebengine package from ever being installed again.

Using NetworkManager in Gentoo Linux

My current two laptops running Gentoo Linux (both with OpenRC, elogind, eudev and wpa_supplicant) use NetworkManager rather than Netifrc. (Actually, my desktop machines also use NetworkManager even though they are always connected to the same network.) NetworkManager has worked with wired and wireless networking on these laptops without any issues for over five years now. This post summarises how it is installed and configured.

I installed the package with the following USE flags enabled:

bluetooth dhclient elogind introspection modemmanager ncurses nss policykit ppp wext wifi

and the following USE flags disabled:

audit connection-sharing dhcpcd gnutls iwd json ofono ovs resolvconf selinux systemd teamd test vala

The precise status can be seen in the output of the eix command on my main laptop that uses Gentoo Stable:

root # eix -I net-misc/networkmanager
[I] net-misc/networkmanager
     Available versions:  [M]~1.22.10-r12^t 1.26.4^t ~1.26.6^t ~1.28.0-r1^t {audit bluetooth +concheck connection-sharing debug (+)dhclient dhcpcd elogind examples (+)gnutls gtk-doc (+)introspection iwd json libpsl lto (+)modemmanager ncurses (+)nss ofono ovs (+)policykit (+)ppp resolvconf selinux syslog systemd teamd test +tools vala (+)wext +wifi ABI_MIPS="n32 n64 o32" ABI_S390="32 64" ABI_X86="32 64 x32" KERNEL="linux"}
     Installed versions:  1.26.4^t(00:33:18 02/01/21)(bluetooth dhclient elogind introspection modemmanager ncurses nss policykit ppp wext wifi -audit -connection-sharing -dhcpcd -gnutls -iwd -json -ofono -ovs -resolvconf -selinux -systemd -teamd -test -vala ABI_MIPS="-n32 -n64 -o32" ABI_S390="-32 -64" ABI_X86="64 -32 -x32" KERNEL="linux")
     Homepage:            https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/NetworkManager
     Description:         A set of co-operative tools that make networking simple and straightforward

I use network file systems, so I also configured the netmount service to run, and specified that NetworkManager is the network manager:

root # grep -v "^#\|^$" /etc/conf.d/netmount
rc_need="NetworkManager"

The network-related services that I configured to be started at boot are as follows:

root # rc-update show -v | grep -i net
       NetworkManager |      default
                local |      default nonetwork
           net-online |
         net.enp4s0f1 |
               net.lo |
             netmount |      default

(It is correct that net-online, net.enp4s0f1 and net.lo are not in any runlevel.)

Neither dhcpd nor dhcpcd services must be started at boot, as they would interfere with NetworkManager:

root # rc-update show -v | grep -i dhcp
               dhcpcd |   
                dhcpd |

By the way, if the output of the command ‘rc-update show -v‘ incudes non-existent physical interfaces not shown in the output of the ‘ifconfig‘ or ‘ip a‘ commands, you can delete the corresponding symlinks. For example, the only physical interfaces listed by the ifconfig command on my older laptop running Gentoo Linux Testing (~amd64) are eth0 and wlan0, but the ‘rc-update show -v‘ command originally showed many other interfaces, so I deleted them as follows:

root # cd /etc/init.d/
root # rm net.aol
root # rm net.ra*
root # rm net.ath*
root # rm net.eth[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
root # rm net.ppp*
root # rm net.wlan[1,2,3]

The installation on that laptop is left with the correct symlinks:

root # ls -la /etc/init.d/net.*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     6 Mar 30  2010 /etc/init.d/net.eth0 -> net.lo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 19861 Feb 15 01:05 /etc/init.d/net.lo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     6 Mar 30  2010 /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 -> net.lo

Anyway, coming back to my main laptop, all the services running in Gentoo Linux on it are shown below, for information:

root # rc-status
Runlevel: default
 dbus                                                       [  started  ]
 NetworkManager                                             [  started  ]
 netmount                                                   [  started  ]
 syslog-ng                                                  [  started  ]
 cupsd                                                      [  started  ]
 samba                                                      [  started  ]
 cronie                                                     [  started  ]
 clamd                                                      [  started  ]
 bluetooth                                                  [  started  ]
 xdm                                                        [  started  ]
 wsdd                                                       [  started  ]
 cups-browsed                                               [  started  ]
 sshd                                                       [  started  ]
 local                                                      [  started  ]
Dynamic Runlevel: hotplugged
Dynamic Runlevel: needed/wanted
 xdm-setup                                                  [  started  ]
 avahi-daemon                                               [  started  ]
Dynamic Runlevel: manual

I specified the laptop’s hostname in /etc/hosts, /etc/conf.d/hostname, /etc/hostname and /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf:

root # grep -v "^#\|^$" /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       clevow230ss     localhost
::1             clevow230ss     localhost

root # cat /etc/conf.d/hostname
# Set to the hostname of this machine
hostname="clevow230ss"

root # cat /etc/hostname
clevow230ss

root # grep -v "^#\|^$" /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf
send host-name "clevow230ss";
supersede host-name "clevow230ss";

The purpose of the ‘supersede‘ statement in dhclient.conf is explained in man dhclient.conf(5):

supersede [ option declaration ] ;

If for some option the client should always use a locally-configured value or values rather than whatever is supplied by the server, these values can be defined in the supersede statement.

In other words, I do not want the hostname to be specified by a dhcp server (as this has caused problems for me in the past when connected to some networks).

I edited the configuration file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf to contain the following:

[main]
plugins=keyfile
rc-manager=none
dhcp=dhclient
no-auto-default=*

[keyfile]
hostname=clevow230ss

In earlier days it was necessary to specify the hostname in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf but that is no longer required. According to NetworkManager.conf(5) man page: ‘This key is deprecated and has no effect since the hostname is now stored in /etc/hostname or other system configuration files according to build options.’ I just left it in the file because it does no harm.

NetworkManager’s configuration files for your wired and wireless connections are normally created and edited by using the GUI network configuration tool (a.k.a. ‘front end’) in the Desktop Environment, such as plasma-nm and nm-applet, but can also be created/edited manually. For example, the NetworkManager file for my home Wi-Fi connection contains the following:

root # cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/BT-5DF82T.nmconnection
[connection]
id=BT-5DF82T
uuid=3190e9d6-961f-38ab-fb90-1d323e6f35d2
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
permissions=

[wifi]
mac-address-blacklist=
mode=infrastructure
ssid=BT-5DF82T

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk-flags=1

[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=auto

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
method=auto

NetworkManager generates the UUID automatically, but it could be generated manually (I have never bothered to do that):

The UUID values in the config files must be unique. You can use uuidgen command line tool to generate such values. Alternatively, you can leave out UUID entirely. In that case NetworkManager will generate a UUID based on the file name.

iwd (iNet Wireless Daemon)

Note that NetworkManager can be used with iwd instead of wpa_supplicant, although I have never bothered to try iwd, as NetworkManager with wpa_supplicant works fine on my laptops. If you want to try iwd instead of wpa_supplicant, NetworkManager will have to be installed with the iwd and introspection USE flags enabled, and you may have to make sure iwd is running before NetworkManager — see the following for further details:

• Gentoo Linux Forums – [SOLVED]NetworkManager WiFi unavailable
• NetworkManager – iwd backend gets activated but NM considers the device unavailable
• iwd Mailing List – Start iwd only after dbus

Work-around in Linux to switch between single-sided and double-sided printing

I use Gentoo Linux on my laptop, and have drivers installed for quite a few printer manufacturers and models, as I work in multiple offices and they have a wide range of printers and MFPs. To date I have had no trouble printing single-sided (‘simplex’) and double-sided (‘duplex’) documents on the printers that support duplex printing. However, one of the offices I have been working in recently has a Konica Minolta bizhub C368, a floor-standing MFP, and the printer in this MFP did not enable me to switch between single-sided and double-sided printing even though Windows users in the same office could. This article explains how I managed to switch between the two printing modes.

A Linux driver for the bizhub C368 can be downloaded from the Konica Minolta Download Centre. I downloaded the tarball KMbeuUXv1_22_multi_language.tar.gz, extracted the contents to the directory ~/KMbeuUXv1_22_multi_language/ and followed the instructions in ‘BEU Linux CUPS Driver Guide.pdf‘:

user $ cd ~/KMbeuUXv1_22_multi_language
user $ su
root # ./install.pl
root # rc-service cupsd restart

I then used the CUPS Administration page in a browser window to set up the printer.

As I wanted the printer to be the default printer while I was working in that office, I edited the system-wide and user-specific lpoptions files to contain the printer name I had specified to CUPS when setting up the printer:

user $ cat ~/.cups/lpoptions
Default Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368

root # cat /etc/cups/lpoptions
Default Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368

I was then able to print from all the usual applications, except that the applications could only select single-sided printing, even though the printer supports double-sided printing and Windows users in the office could print double-sided. I could not find a setting for this in the CUPS Manager’s ‘Set Default Options’ page for the printer, so I edited the PPD file to change the relevant default option:

root # nano /etc/cups/ppd/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd

I changed the default printing option from:

*DefaultKMDuplex: 1Sided

to:

*DefaultKMDuplex: 2Sided

Then I could print double-sided pages, but selecting ‘single-sided’ in applications would still print double-sided. Now, I don’t know if there is a proper fix for this, but I could not find out how to do it. Therefore I opted for a work-around which is fine for my purposes. Here is what I did…

I created the shell script ~/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.sh containing the following:

#!/bin/bash
echo
echo "Konica Minolta bizhub C368 printer"
echo
echo "Select single-sided or double-sided printing as the default"
echo
# Get the password entry over and done with now
echo "Enter your user account password."
sudo ls > /dev/null
echo
CHOICE=""
while [[ $CHOICE != "X" && $CHOICE != "x" ]]; do
    if [[ $CHOICE != "X" && $CHOICE != "x" ]]; then
        echo
        echo -n "[1]-sided, [2]-sided or e[X]it : "
        read -n1 CHOICE
        echo
    else
        break
    fi
    case $CHOICE in
        [1] ) sudo cp /home/fitzcarraldo/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd.single-sided /etc/cups/ppd/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd
              echo "Single-sided printing has been selected"
        ;;
        [2] ) sudo cp /home/fitzcarraldo/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd.double-sided /etc/cups/ppd/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd
              echo "Double-sided printing has been selected"
        ;;
        [Xx] ) echo; exit;;
        * ) echo; echo " Enter '1', '2' or 'X/x'"
    esac
done

I created the Desktop Configuration File ~/Desktop/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.desktop containing the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=Select single-sided or double-sided printing for Konica Minolta bizhub C368
Comment=Select single-sided or double-sided printing for Konica Minolta bizhub C368
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=konsole -e sh /home/fitzcarraldo/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Select printing sides for KM bizhub C368
GenericName=Select printing sides for KM bizhub C368
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/Pictures/Icons/konica-minolta.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368
Name=Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=true
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-DCOP-ServiceType=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

I downloaded a Konica Minolta logo from the Web and used it for the icon for the Desktop Configuration File.

And finally I copied the PPD file to two files and edited them:

~/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd.single-sided

which includes *DefaultKMDuplex: 1Sided

~/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368/Konica_Minolta_bizhub_C368.ppd.double-sided

which includes *DefaultKMDuplex: 2Sided

Now, if I want to switch between single-sided and double-sided printing I just double-click on the icon on my Desktop and a terminal window pops-up allowing me to select the new default:

Konica Minolta bizhub C368 printer

Select single-sided or double-sided printing as the default

Enter your user account password.
Password:

[1]-sided, [2]-sided or e[X]it :

Migrating to libglvnd in Gentoo Linux on a laptop with NVIDIA Optimus

In a 2015 post I described how I configured my Gentoo Linux installation to switch between the closed-source NVIDIA driver and the open-source Intel driver on a Clevo W230SS laptop that has NVIDIA Optimus hardware (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU plus Intel HD 4600 IGP). I did not want to use Bumblebee, preferring to use only the NVIDIA driver or only the Intel driver, switching between them by running a Bash script then logging out of KDE Plasma and back in again. Basically, the scheme a) swapped the xorg.conf file depending on which driver I wanted to use, and b) used the eselect opengl command to select the applicable OpenGL library. The latest versions of the files in my scheme are listed below if you’re interested (I use LightDM instead of KDM these days, as KDM is no more), otherwise just skip to the section after, titled ‘Migrating to libglvnd’.

Previous scheme using eselect opengl

~/Desktop/Select_NVIDIA_GPU.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=Run a script to configure your installation to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU when you restart X Windows
Comment=Run a script to configure your installation to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU when you restart X Windows
Exec=konsole -e sh /home/fitzcarraldo/nvidia.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Configure your installation to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU
GenericName=Configure your installation to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/Pictures/Icons/nvidia_icon.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=NVIDIA GPU
Name=NVIDIA GPU
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=\s--noclose
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=fitzcarraldo

~/nvidia.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo
echo "Your installation is currently configured to use the following graphics processor:"
echo
GPU=`eselect opengl list | grep \* | awk '{ print $2 }'`
if [ "$GPU" = "nvidia" ]; then
  echo "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M"
  echo
  echo "You do not need to do anything. Please close this window."
elif [ "$GPU" = "xorg-x11" ]; then
  echo "Intel HD 4600 Integrated Graphics Processor"
  echo
  echo "This script will configure your installation to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU all the time."
  echo
  echo "Enter your own password."
  echo
  sudo eselect opengl set nvidia
# See separate configuration of LightDM for NVIDIA GPU and Intel HD Graphics.
  sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nvidia /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  echo
  echo "Now you should logout to restart X Windows."
fi
echo
echo -n "Press ENTER to end: "
read ACKNOWLEDGE

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.nvidia

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      1  "nvidia" 0 0
    Inactive       "intel"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    Option         "DPMS"
    Option         "DPI" "96 x 96"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "nvidia"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "intel"
    Driver         "modesetting"
    BusID          "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "nvidia"
    Device         "nvidia"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Virtual     1920 1080
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "intel"
    Device         "intel"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
EndSection

~/Desktop/Select_Intel_HD_Graphics.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=Run a script to configure your installation to use Intel Integrated Graphics when you restart X Windows
Comment=Run a script to configure your installation to use Intel Integrated Graphics when you restart X Windows
Exec=konsole -e sh /home/fitzcarraldo/intel.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Configure your installation to use Intel HD Graphics
GenericName=Configure your installation to use Intel HD Graphics
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/Pictures/Icons/intel-hd-icon.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Intel HD Graphics
Name=Intel HD Graphics
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=\s--noclose
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=fitzcarraldo

~/intel.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo
echo "Your installation is currently configured to use the following graphics processor:"
echo
GPU=`eselect opengl list | grep \* | awk '{ print $2 }'`
if [ "$GPU" = "xorg-x11" ]; then
  echo "Intel HD 4600 Integrated Graphics Processor"
  echo
  echo "You do not need to do anything. Please close this window."
elif [ "$GPU" = "nvidia" ]; then
  echo "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M"
  echo
  echo "This script will configure your installation to use the"
  echo "Intel HD 4600 Integrated Graphics Controller all the time."
  echo
  echo "Enter your own password."
  echo
  sudo eselect opengl set xorg-x11
# See separate configuration of LightDM for Intel HD Graphics and NVIDIA GPU.
  sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.intel /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  echo
  echo "Now you should logout to restart X Windows."
fi
echo
echo -n "Press ENTER to end: "
read ACKNOWLEDGE

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.intel

Section "Device" 
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics" 
   Driver      "intel" 
   Option      "AccelMethod" "sna" 
   Option      "TearFree" "true" 
EndSection

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-opengl.conf

Section "Files"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
EndSection

/etc/X11/Sessions/plasma (used by LightDM)

#!/bin/bash
#
# Make sure the following is in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
# display-setup-script=/etc/X11/Sessions/plasma
#
GPU=`eselect opengl list | grep \* | awk '{ print $2 }'`
if [ "$GPU" = "nvidia" ]; then
    xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
    xrandr --auto
fi

Migrating to libglvnd

Well, the above scheme worked fine… until the recent decision by the Gentoo Linux developers to drop the app-eselect/eselect-opengl ebuild and switch the x11-base/xorg-server, media-libs/mesa and x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers to using the libglvnd library:

This package is masked and could be removed soon!
The mask comment indicates that this package is scheduled for removal from our package repository.
Please review the mask information below for more details.

Replaced by media-libs/libglvnd. Masked for removal in 30 days. Bug #728286

Affected packages	app-eselect/eselect-opengl

Author/Date		Matt Turner  (2020-08-11 00:00:00 +0000 UTC)

Without the eselect opengl command, my scripts were scuppered. So I decided to bite the bullet and switch to using libglvnd. It turned out not to be difficult, and I took the following steps to migrate:

1. Deleted the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
2. Created the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/01-nvidia-offload.conf containing the following:

   Section "ServerLayout"
       Identifier "layout"
       Option "AllowNVIDIAGPUScreens"
   EndSection
   

3. Performed the usual ‘emerge -uvDN @world‘ to update and upgrade the relevant packages, which automatically unmerged app-eselect/eselect-opengl

If I had run into trouble with the installed app-eselect/eselect-opengl blocking the upgrade, I could have worked around that by doing the following:

root # emerge -C eselect-opengl
root # emerge -1v nvidia-drivers mesa xorg-server xorg-drivers

I removed all references to the libglvnd USE flag from /etc/portage/make.conf, and the only place libglvnd is declared explicitly now is in the file /etc/portage/package.use/world because I have a multilib installation:

root # grep libglvnd /etc/portage/package.*/*
/etc/portage/package.use/world:>=media-libs/libglvnd-1.3.1 abi_x86_32

The status of the applicable packages in my installation is now as follows:

root # eix -I nvidia-drivers
[I] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers
     Available versions:  [M]340.108-r1(0/340)^mtd ~390.132-r4(0/390)^mtd 390.138-r1(0/390)^mtd 435.21-r6(0/435)^mtd 440.100-r2(0/440)^mtd 450.57-r1(0/450)^mtd {+X compat (+)driver gtk3 +kms +libglvnd multilib static-libs +tools uvm wayland ABI_MIPS="n32 n64 o32" ABI_RISCV="lp64 lp64d" ABI_S390="32 64" ABI_X86="32 64 x32" KERNEL="FreeBSD linux"}
     Installed versions:  450.57-r1(0/450)^mtd(22:04:56 14/08/20)(X driver kms libglvnd multilib tools wayland -compat -gtk3 -static-libs -uvm ABI_MIPS="-n32 -n64 -o32" ABI_RISCV="-lp64 -lp64d" ABI_S390="-32 -64" ABI_X86="32 64 -x32" KERNEL="linux -FreeBSD")
     Homepage:            https://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx
     Description:         NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver

root # eix -I mesa
[I] media-libs/mesa
     Available versions:  20.0.8^t ~20.1.4^t ~20.1.5^t ~20.2.0_rc1^t ~20.2.0_rc2^t **9999*l^t {+X +classic d3d9 debug +dri3 +egl +gallium +gbm gles1 +gles2 +libglvnd +llvm lm-sensors opencl osmesa selinux test unwind vaapi valgrind vdpau vulkan vulkan-overlay wayland xa xvmc zink +zstd ABI_MIPS="n32 n64 o32" ABI_RISCV="lp64 lp64d" ABI_S390="32 64" ABI_X86="32 64 x32" KERNEL="linux" VIDEO_CARDS="freedreno i915 i965 intel iris lima nouveau panfrost r100 r200 r300 r600 radeon radeonsi v3d vc4 virgl vivante vmware"}
     Installed versions:  20.0.8^t(22:03:42 14/08/20)(X classic dri3 egl gallium gbm gles2 libglvnd llvm wayland zstd -d3d9 -debug -gles1 -lm-sensors -opencl -osmesa -selinux -test -unwind -vaapi -valgrind -vdpau -vulkan -vulkan-overlay -xa -xvmc ABI_MIPS="-n32 -n64 -o32" ABI_RISCV="-lp64 -lp64d" ABI_S390="-32 -64" ABI_X86="32 64 -x32" KERNEL="linux" VIDEO_CARDS="i965 intel -freedreno -i915 -iris -lima -nouveau -panfrost -r100 -r200 -r300 -r600 -radeon -radeonsi -vc4 -virgl -vivante -vmware")
     Homepage:            https://www.mesa3d.org/ https://mesa.freedesktop.org/
     Description:         OpenGL-like graphic library for Linux

[I] x11-apps/mesa-progs
     Available versions:  8.4.0 **9999*l {egl gles2}
     Installed versions:  8.4.0(13:53:51 02/05/19)(-egl -gles2)
     Homepage:            https://www.mesa3d.org/ https://mesa.freedesktop.org/ https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/demos
     Description:         Mesa's OpenGL utility and demo programs (glxgears and glxinfo)

Found 2 matches
root # eix -I xorg-server
[I] x11-base/xorg-server
     Available versions:  1.20.8-r1(0/1.20.8) **9999(0/9999)*l {debug dmx doc +elogind ipv6 kdrive +libglvnd libressl minimal selinux static-libs suid systemd +udev unwind wayland xcsecurity xephyr xnest xorg xvfb}
     Installed versions:  1.20.8-r1(0/1.20.8)(22:07:21 14/08/20)(elogind ipv6 libglvnd udev wayland xorg -debug -dmx -doc -kdrive -libressl -minimal -selinux -static-libs -suid -systemd -unwind -xcsecurity -xephyr -xnest -xvfb)
     Homepage:            https://www.x.org/wiki/ https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/xorg-server
     Description:         X.Org X servers

root # eix -I xorg-drivers
[I] x11-base/xorg-drivers
     Available versions:  1.20-r2 **9999*l {INPUT_DEVICES="elographics evdev joystick libinput synaptics vmmouse void wacom" VIDEO_CARDS="amdgpu ast dummy fbdev freedreno geode glint i915 i965 intel mga nouveau nv nvidia omap qxl r128 radeon radeonsi siliconmotion tegra vc4 vesa via virtualbox vmware"}
     Installed versions:  1.20-r2(22:05:41 14/08/20)(INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics -elographics -joystick -libinput -vmmouse -void -wacom" VIDEO_CARDS="i965 intel nvidia -amdgpu -ast -dummy -fbdev -freedreno -geode -glint -i915 -mga -nouveau -nv -omap -qxl -r128 -radeon -radeonsi -siliconmotion -tegra -vc4 -vesa -via -virtualbox -vmware")
     Homepage:            https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/No_homepage
     Description:         Meta package containing deps on all xorg drivers

I can now delete the line display-setup-script=/etc/X11/Sessions/plasma in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf, and delete the script /etc/X11/Sessions/plasma, as the script no longer works and the xrandr commands in it are no longer necessary in any case. The files and scripts Select_NVIDIA_GPU.desktop, nvidia.sh, xorg.conf.nvidia, Select_Intel_HD_Graphics.desktop, intel.sh and xorg.conf.intel are also redundant now and can be deleted.

After rebooting, the LightDM login screen appears as usual and I can login to the Desktop Environment. I can connect an external monitor to the laptop via either VGA cable or HDMI cable and both methods work, and I can switch between the laptop monitor and the external monitor using KDE Plasma’s ‘System Settings’ > ‘Display Configuration’, so everything appears to be working correctly.

The command xrandr --listproviders (add ‘--verbose‘ to provide more information) lists both the NVIDIA and Intel video devices, so I assume everything is working correctly:

user $ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x47 cap: 0xb, Source Output, Sink Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 4 outputs: 4 associated providers: 0 name:Intel
Provider 1: id: 0x203 cap: 0x0 crtcs: 0 outputs: 0 associated providers: 0 name:NVIDIA-G0

It appears that the default is to use the Intel IGP:

user $ glxinfo | grep -E 'OpenGL (vendor|renderer)'
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2)
user $ __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD_PROVIDER=Intel __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa glxinfo  | grep -E 'OpenGL (vendor|renderer)'
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2)

unless I use environment variables explicitly to specify that the NVIDIA GPU be used for a specific application:

user $ __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD_PROVIDER=NVIDIA-G0 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia glxinfo  | grep -E 'OpenGL (vendor|renderer)'
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GTX 860M/PCIe/SSE2

Performance seems reasonable:

user $ __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD_PROVIDER=NVIDIA-G0 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=0 glxgears
27197 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5439.292 FPS
27332 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5466.274 FPS
27857 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5571.184 FPS
27553 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5510.447 FPS
27128 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5425.556 FPS
^C

To run a program such as LibreCAD using the NVIDIA GPU I can do the following:

user $ __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD_PROVIDER=NVIDIA-G0 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia librecad

I need to play around more to understand how to use nvidia-drivers and libglvnd with the NVIDIA Optimus hardware in this laptop, but at least I have managed to migrate from app-eselect/eselect-opengl to media-libs/libglvnd before the former is dropped from the Portage tree in the near future.

Reconfiguring the time zone, locales and keymaps in Sabayon Linux

This is an example of how to reconfigure the time zone, locales and keymaps in a Sabayon Linux installation from the command line. Sabayon Linux uses systemd, therefore much of this example should also be applicable in other Linux distributions that use systemd, and will certainly be applicable in Gentoo Linux installations that use systemd rather than OpenRC.

You can check the currently selected keymaps (console and X Windows) and locale using the ‘localectl status‘ command. For example:

user $ localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: uk
      X11 Layout: gb
       X11 Model: pc105

Let’s say I had previously configured my installation to use only the en_GB and en_US locales but I now want to add Swiss Italian. The steps would be as shown below. I will assume the system being configured is in Switzerland and therefore I will also reconfigure the time zone accordingly, but that is not essential.

Check if the desired time zone exists:

root # timedatectl list-timezones | grep Zurich
Europe/Zurich

Set the desired time zone:

root # timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Zurich

Check if the Swiss Italian locale (it_CH) has already been added:

root # localectl list-locales
C.utf8
en_GB
en_GB.iso88591
en_GB.utf8
en_US
en_US.iso88591
en_US.utf8

If the desired locale is not present, add it:

root # nano /etc/locale.gen

root # grep -v "^#\|^$" /etc/locale.gen
C.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_GB ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1
it_CH.UTF-8 UTF-8
it_CH ISO-8859-1

Generate the locales:

root # locale-gen
 * Generating 7 locales (this might take a while) with 1 jobs
 *  (1/7) Generating C.UTF-8 ...                                          [ ok ]
 *  (2/7) Generating en_GB.ISO-8859-1 ...                                 [ ok ]
 *  (3/7) Generating en_GB.UTF-8 ...                                      [ ok ]
 *  (4/7) Generating en_US.ISO-8859-1 ...                                 [ ok ]
 *  (5/7) Generating en_US.UTF-8 ...                                      [ ok ]
 *  (6/7) Generating it_CH.ISO-8859-1 ...                                 [ ok ]
 *  (7/7) Generating it_CH.UTF-8 ...                                      [ ok ]
 * Generation complete
 * Adding locales to archive ...                                          [ ok ]

Check the locales have been added:

root # localectl list-locales
C.utf8
en_GB
en_GB.iso88591
en_GB.utf8
en_US
en_US.iso88591
en_US.utf8
it_CH
it_CH.iso88591
it_CH.utf8

Set the desired locale:

root # localectl set-locale LANG=it_CH.UTF-8

Check which Italian console keymaps are available:

root # localectl list-keymaps | grep it
it
it-ibm
it2
mac-it

But let’s say I want to use a Swiss German keymap (sg) for the console instead of an Italian keymap. Check if a console keymap for Swiss German exists:

root # localectl list-keymaps | grep sg
sg
sg-latin1
sg-latin1-lk450

By the way, Debian, Ubuntu and its derivatives store console keymaps differently to some distributions, and the command ‘localectl list-keymaps‘ in Debian, Ubuntu and its derivatives will return an error message (the command ‘localectl set-keymap’ will still work though):

user $ localectl list-keymaps
Failed to read list of keymaps: No such file or directory

Set the console keymap to Swiss German:

root # localectl set-keymap sg

Let’s say I want to use a Swiss keymap in X Windows. Check if it exists:

root # localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts | grep sg
root # localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts | grep ch
ch

Set the X Windows keymap to Swiss:

root # localectl set-x11-keymap ch

Update the environment variables and profile:

root # env-update && source /etc/profile
>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...

Edit /etc/default/grub and change (or add, if none exists) the console keymap entry in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to be vconsole.keymap=sg, and also rd.vconsole.keymap=sg (‘rd‘ stands for ‘RAM disk’) because Sabayon Linux uses an initramfs:

root # nano /etc/default/grub

Regenerate grub.cfg:

root # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Generazione file di configurazione GRUB...
Trovato sfondo: /boot/grub/default-splash.png
Trovata immagine linux: /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-5.4.0-sabayon
Trovata immagine initrd: /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-5.4.0-sabayon
fatto

Reboot to check if everything is working:

root # systemctl reboot

Check that the list of locales is as expected:

root # eselect locale list
Available targets for the LANG variable:
  [1]   C
  [2]   C.utf8
  [3]   en_GB
  [4]   en_GB.iso88591
  [5]   en_GB.utf8
  [6]   en_US
  [7]   en_US.iso88591
  [8]   en_US.utf8
  [9]   it_CH
  [10]  it_CH.iso88591
  [11]  it_CH.utf8
  [12]  POSIX
  [13]  it_CH.UTF-8 *
  [ ]   (free form)

Check if the current configuration is as expected:

root # localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: sg
      X11 Layout: ch

If the Desktop Environment is KDE, check the file ~/.config/plasma-localerc to see if the LANG variable is set to the locale just configured.

root # cat /home/fitzcarraldo/.config/plasma-localerc
[Formats]
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

If it is not, delete the file:

root # rm /home/fitzcarraldo/.config/plasma-localerc

then logout, login again and re-check the file:

root # cat /home/fitzcarraldo/.config/plasma-localerc
[Formats]
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8

The system should now be ready for use with the new time zone, locale and keymaps.

user $ date
gio 2 lug 2020, 15:55:21, CEST

user $ localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: sg
      X11 Layout: ch

Using a mixture of locale variables

It is not mandatory for all the locale variables to be for the same locale. For example, suppose I want to use the currency and number formats of one of the other locales I added. That is not so outlandish: I could be a Swiss national whose mother tongue is Swiss Italian, working in the Swiss branch of a British company and I want the currency format and number format on my work computer to be British, but everything else to be Swiss. To achieve this I can additionally do the following:

root # localectl set-locale LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
root # localectl set-locale LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
root # env-update && source /etc/profile

Check that the main locale and keymaps remain as they were but that the two locale variables have been changed to the British locale:

root # localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
                  LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
                  LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: sg
      X11 Layout: ch

root # locale
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

You can see above that only $LC_NUMERIC and $LC_MONETARY have changed, as I wanted. As I did not change the time zone, the command I used earlier to set the time zone to Europe/Zurich is still in force:

root # date
gio 2 lug 2020, 16:12:18, CEST

By the way, if you try to change one of the variables from en_GB.UTF-8 back to it_CH.UTF-8, the change does not show in the output of the locale command. For example, let’s say you want to change LC_NUMERIC back to it_CH.UTF-8:

root # localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
                  LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
                  LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: sg
      X11 Layout: ch
root # localectl set-locale LC_NUMERIC=it_CH.UTF-8
root # cat /etc/locale.conf   
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
root # cat /etc/env.d/02locale
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
root # localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
                  LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: sg
      X11 Layout: ch
root # locale
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8  <-- Notice it didn't change
LC_TIME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
root # env-update && source /etc/profile
>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...
root # locale
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8 <-- Notice it still didn't change
LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

This is one of the reasons I’m not keen on the layer of abstraction added by systemd. The way to get LC_NUMERIC back to it_CH.UTF-8 is to change all the locale variables to en_GB.UTF-8 then back to it_CH.UTF-8:

root # localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
root # env-update && source /etc/profile
root # localectl set-locale LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
root # env-update && source /etc/profile
root # reboot

After rebooting, the change will have been applied:

root # locale
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="it_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
root # localectl status
   System Locale: LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: sh
      X11 Layout: ch

Notice that everything has changed back to it_CH.UTF-8, including $LC_MONETARY, so you’d have to repeat the command ‘localectl set-locale LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8‘ if you wanted that to still be the British format.

If you use KDE, also check the contents of the file ~/.config/plasma-localerc to make sure it contains the correct locale:

user $ cat ~/.config/plasma-localerc
[Formats]
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8

Optionally you could edit that file to add desired settings. For example:

[Formats]
LANG=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_NAME=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=it_CH.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=it_CH.UTF-8
useDetailed=true

Alternatively, delete that file then logout and login again to make KDE Plasma pick up the values of the variables from the existing configuration. KDE Plasma will recreate the file.